Mobile terminal apparatus

ABSTRACT

A mobile terminal apparatus checks if a user is a proper user based on the operation of the user and, if the result of authentication is negative, uploads predetermined data, which is part of data stored in a memory, to a predetermined server. After the transmission is completed, the mobile terminal apparatus erases the uploaded data from the memory. It is also possible to instruct the mobile terminal apparatus to upload and erase data from an external source using an electronic mail or a telephone tone signal sequence. This may protect data contained in mobile terminal apparatus that has been lost, from a person who improperly attempts to access the data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 14/081,619, filed Nov.15, 2013, which is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 13/457,527,filed Apr. 27, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,611,862, issued on Dec. 17,2013, which is a Continuation application of application Ser. No.12/431,429, filed Apr. 28, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,208,901, issued onJun. 26, 2012, which is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 10/790,676,filed Mar. 3, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,275, issued on Apr. 28,2009, which claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No.:2003-061233, filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Mar. 7, 2003, thecontents in which being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal apparatus (in thisspecification it may be also called simply a terminal in the presentspecification) such as cellular phone devices and a Personal DigitalAssistants (PDAs).

2. Description of Related Art

Mobile terminal apparatuses such as cellular phones and a personaldigital assistants (PDAs) may to be lost or stolen because of itsportability. When a mobile terminal apparatus storing personalinformation such as telephone book data, memo data, and electronic mail(email) data is stolen or lost, data including the personal informationmay be improperly accessed or altered.

Although attempts have been made for assuring security againstunauthorized access to data in a terminal when necessary through theintroduction of various types of authentication methods, theconventional authentication method is not necessarily effectiveconsidering the importance of personal information.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-309431 discloses a technology inwhich, when a notification indicating that a mobile terminal apparatusis lost is sent to the location registration center of the mobileterminal apparatus, the location registration center causes a basestation to send a control signal to the mobile terminal apparatus todisable its key operation when the mobile terminal apparatuscommunicates with the base station and, after transferring internal datato the database of the location registration center, causes the mobileterminal apparatus to erase the data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-309431requires the location registration center and a base station to performspecific processing. That is, the location registration center mustmanage and check a mobile terminal apparatus that is notified as lostand, when the mobile terminal apparatus notified as lost communicateswith a base station, performs special processing including thegeneration and control of a signal to disable the mobile terminalapparatus operation and to transfer data. Another problem is that theuser must notify the location registration center and wait for thenotification to be reflected on the processing of the locationregistration center and the base station.

There is therefore need of providing a mobile terminal apparatus thatprotects data from those who intend to improperly access or browseinternal data, without requiring a location registration center and abase station to perform special processing.

There is also need of providing a mobile terminal apparatus that mayprotect data immediately when a need arises for protecting data or whena user gets notice of such situation.

There is still a need of providing a mobile terminal apparatus thatensures that data in the terminal will be available for use even if theterminal is lost.

A mobile terminal apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention includes storage means for storing data; communicationmeans for communicating data via a communication network; authenticationmeans for checking if a user is a proper user based on an operation ofthe user; and control means for transmitting predetermined data, whichis included in the data stored in the storage means, to a predeterminedserver via the communication means when the result of authentication bythe authentication means is negative and, after the transmission iscompleted, erasing the predetermined data from the storage means.

The authentication means performs authentication processing based on theuser operation and, if the result is negative, the control meanstransmits the predetermined data from the storage means to the server tosave the data and, after that, erases the data. This method effectivelyprotects the data from being accessed/browsed or used improperly.

Although the predetermined data may be determined by default, means forallowing the user to specify desired data should preferably be provided.Providing such means may allow the user to protect data not determinedby default.

The authentication means performs authentication, for example, when theuser attempts to access the predetermined data.

The data erase processing performed after the data is transmitted to theserver may also be suppressed depending upon the type of data. Erasingdata always requires the user to restore it at a later time. If theerase processing is suppressed according to the importance or relevanceof the data, for example, if the erase processing is omitted for datathat should be saved but need not be erased, there will be no need forthe restore processing.

A mobile terminal apparatus according to another preferred embodiment ofthe present invention includes storage means for storing data;communication means for communicating an email via a communicationnetwork; and control means for transmitting predetermined data to apredetermined server when a previously specified instruction is receivedvia a received electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred to as“email”) and, after the transmission is completed, erasing thepredetermined data from the storage means.

When a proper user finds that his or her mobile terminal apparatus islost, the user may remotely instruct the mobile terminal apparatus tosave the data stored in the mobile terminal apparatus and then erase it.One proposed way of doing so is sending instruction via an email. Inthis case, the control means may transmit data to the server if at leastone of the following two conditions is satisfied: one condition is thatthe information on the sender of the email matches the information onthe sender, which is stored/registered in advance, and another conditionis that the email is received a predetermined number of times within agiven length or period of time. This method rejects an unauthorizedinstruction from an external source.

Another method of allowing the proper user to remotely instruct themobile terminal apparatus to save data stored in the mobile terminalapparatus and then erase the data is by means of a telephone tone signalsequence. That is, the mobile terminal apparatus includes storage meansfor storing data; means for automatically receiving a telephone call;means for accepting the input of the tone signal during an automaticcall receiving time; and control means for transmitting predetermineddata to a predetermined server when a predetermined tone signal sequenceis received and, after the transmission is completed, erasing thepredetermined data from the storage means.

The mobile terminal apparatus described above is not always required toerase data but, when the authentication result of authentication meansis negative, the mobile terminal apparatus is only required to transmitpredetermined data, which is part of data stored in the storage means,to the predetermined server via the communication means. This methodsaves data in the server to ensure its availability.

When the result of authentication is negative, the control means maysuppress the authentication processing for accessing data from beingexecuted at least for a given length of time. This preferred embodimentof the present invention does not save or erase data but suppresses theexecution of authentication processing to reduce the number ofauthentication retries. When the result of authentication is negative ina system where there are multiple authentication means, the controlmeans may switch the authentication means to an authentication means ofhigher level, i.e., an authentication means of higher complexity, forexample. As a result, it is possible to reduce the rate of success whenperforming retrial of authentication.

Suppression (or omission) of authentication processing and switching ofauthentication means are also effective when data is not transmitted(uploaded) to a server or data is not erased.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent from the following description of thepresently exemplary preferred embodiment of the present invention takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a diagram showing an example of model of a system to whicha preferred embodiment of the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of an example of configuration of a mobileterminal apparatus in the system according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an example of configuration of a basestation/control station in the system according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of an example of configuration of a serverin the system according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example of first upload processing in apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of second upload processing in apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example of third upload processingaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of an example of configuration of a mobileterminal apparatus corresponding to the third data upload processingshown in FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart of data download processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described indetail as follows, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the model of a system to which a preferredembodiment of the present invention is applicable. The system includes amobile terminal apparatus 100 that may be a cellular phone, a basestation/control station 200, and a server 300. The base station and thecontrol station are shown as a station with the functions of bothstations. Although connected directly to the base station/controlstation 200, the server 300 may be connected via a gateway and acommunication network such as a public communication network.

FIG. 2 shows an example of configuration of the mobile terminalapparatus 100. A controller 120 controls the components of the mobileterminal apparatus 100 via a control line 150 and a data line 160. Acommunication circuit 102, connected to the control line 150,communicates audio and other kinds of data to or from the basestation/control station 200 via an antenna 101. A display unit 107,connected to the control line 150 and the data line 160, has a displaydevice or apparatus such as a liquid crystal display to display variouskinds of information. An operation unit 106, connected to the controlline 150, has, for example, various operation keys and a jog dial toaccept an input operation by the user. A memory 105, connected to thecontrol line 150 and the data line 160, has storage devices such as aROM, a RAM, and a flash memory to store various programs and data. Thememory 105 forms a data holding unit that will be described later. Anotification unit 108 may be composed of a vibrator, a LED or othermeans for visualization, for example. Such unit, connected to thecontrol line 150, notifies the user about an incoming call in a selectedway. A microphone 103 and a speaker 104, connected to the data line 160,send and receive audio data.

FIG. 3 shows an example of configuration of the base station/controlstation 200. A controller 203 controls the components of the basestation/control station 200 via a control line 250 and a data line 260.A communication circuit 202, connected to the control line 250,communicates sound and data to or from the mobile terminal apparatus 100via an antenna 201. A memory 204, connected to the control line 250 andthe data line 260, has storage devices such as a ROM, a RAM, and a flashmemory to store, for example, various programs and data. A wiredtransmission line interface (I/F) 205, connected to the control line 250and the data line 260, is connected to an external device via a wiredtransmission line 206.

FIG. 4 shows an example of configuration of the server 300. A controller303 controls the components of the server 300 via a control line 350 anda data line 360. A wired transmission line interface (I/F) 301,connected to the control line 350 and the data line 360, is connected toan external device via a wired transmission line 306. A memory 304,connected to the control line 350 and the data line 360, has storagedevices such as a ROM, a RAM, and a flash memory to store variousprograms and data. An external storage device 302, a large-capacitystorage device such as a hard disk device, is connected to the controlline 350 and the data line 360. An operation unit 305 has input meanssuch as a keyboard and a pointing device to accept an input operationfrom the user. The server 300 may also have a display unit, not shown,including a display device.

The operation of this embodiment of the present invention will bedescribed below. In principle, data is uploaded in this embodiment fromthe mobile terminal apparatus 100 to the server to send the dataaccording to a predetermined condition and then the data in the mobileterminal apparatus is erased. Uploading in this embodiment means savingof data. The following describes three examples each of which showingdifferent factors that may trigger uploading.

Data to be uploaded in this embodiment may be predetermined data in thedata holding unit or a folder (including a mailbox) of data. In additionto or instead of such data, data to be uploaded may be anyuser-specified data or folder. Data to be uploaded is called “specifieddata” in this specification.

FIG. 5 shows a first example of upload processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention.

When the first upload processing is used, it is supposed that at leastauthentication is performed when data to be uploaded is accessed. Thatis, even if authentication is not set initially for data that isaccessed for browsing, authentication is automatically set when thedata, specified as data to be uploaded, is accessed for uploading.Authentication, which confirms whether the user is authorized to accessdata, is usually performed on a cellular phone by receiving a passwordand checking its validity. It has to be noted that the authenticationmethod is not limited to a password authentication method.

Referring to FIG. 5, when the user attempts to access predeterminedspecified data (Yes in S501), authentication processing is started, instep S502. For example, the user is requested to enter a password andthe entered password is compared with a registered password, in stepS502. If the passwords match, it is judged that the authentication issuccessful (Yes in S503) and the data is displayed to allow the user toperform operations, for example, to add, change, or delete data, asrequired, in step S509. If a password mismatch occurs more times than ispre-defined (No in S503), it is judged that an authentication error hasoccurred and the key operation is disabled, in step S504. Thistemporarily disables the acceptance of a key operation from the user.The mobile terminal apparatus accesses the network to transmit thespecified data to the server, in step S505. It is assumed that serveraccess information is saved in advance in the mobile terminal apparatusand that the authorized user of the mobile terminal apparatus hasalready been registered for the service provided by the server. When thedata transmission is finished (Yes in S506), the specified data in themobile terminal apparatus is erased, in step S507. After that, thedisabled key operation is enabled, in step S508 and the processing ends.

The processing described above causes the server to “pump up” thespecified data upon detecting an authentication error when a user whodoes not know a password attempts to improperly access/browse thespecified data, thus preventing the user from improperly accessing thespecified data. As it will be described later, a proper user candownload this “pumped up” data back at a later time to the recoveredmobile terminal apparatus or to a separate new terminal.

The first example of upload processing shown in FIG. 5 starts itsfunction upon detecting an unauthorized access to a mobile terminalapparatus. It is also possible for a proper user, who has lost a mobileterminal apparatus, to remotely control the lost terminal via acommunication network for uploading and erasing the specified data. Thisprocessing, a second example of upload processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIG. 6.

The second example of upload processing is started by a proper usersending a specific electronic mail (also called simply an email in thisspecification) to a mobile terminal apparatus from which data is to beuploaded. To allow the user to do so, a predetermined keyword isincluded in the header information of the email. For example, a mail issent to the mail address of the mobile terminal apparatus, for example,with a character string such as “*upload” in the Subject area of theemail. The Message area of the mail may be left blank or may contain afixed sentence in advance. A mail like this may be prepared in advancein the mobile terminal apparatus. The proper user is supposed to set thekeyword in the mobile terminal apparatus, in advance.

Referring to FIG. 6, upon receiving a mail (Yes in S601), the mobileterminal apparatus checks the header information of the received mail,in step S602. If the mail is not an upload instruction mail as a resultof the checking (No in S603), usual mail processing is performed, instep S611. If the mail is an upload instruction mail (Yes in S603),verification is made if a predetermined condition is satisfied, in stepS604. The checking of this “predetermined condition” is anotherauthentication function added to the header information checking. Forexample, at least one of the following two conditions may be used as thepredetermined condition: one condition is that the sender information onthe mail (sender's mail address, sender's name, etc.) matches apre-registered sender information and another condition may be that theupload instruction mail is received a specified number of times within aspecified time period. Verification of such a predetermined condition ispreferably done when the header information checking is not enough, butthis verification/checking is not always required.

If the predetermined condition is not satisfied, control is passed tostep S611 to perform usual mail processing. If the predeterminedcondition is satisfied, the key operation is disabled, in step S605.Then, the mobile terminal apparatus accesses the network and transmitsthe specified data to the server, in step S606. After the transmissionis finished, (Yes in S607), the specified data is erased, in step S608.Then, a response mail indicating that the specified data has beenuploaded and erased is returned to the sender of the upload instructionmail, in step S609. Such a return mail may also be prepared in advancein the mobile terminal apparatus as the template. After that, thedisabled key operation is enabled, in step S610 and the processing isended.

As described above, the second data upload processing allows the user toupload the specified data stored in the mobile terminal apparatus andthen erase it by sending an upload instruction mail from outside themobile terminal apparatus.

Next, a third example of data upload processing according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention will be described with reference toFIG. 7. The third example of data upload processing is similar to thesecond data upload processing in that the proper user of a mobileterminal apparatus controls the lost mobile terminal apparatus remotelyvia a network except that the mobile terminal apparatus is controlledvia sound, not by mail. In this case, the DTMF (Dual ToneMulti-Frequency) signal, called a tone signal, is usually used. Thissignal is an analog signal generated by pressing a touch-tone button ona telephone apparatus. Upon receiving a predetermined tone signalsequence, the receiver can recognize that a predetermined instruction isreceived from an external source.

More specifically, a mobile terminal apparatus such as a state-ofthe-art cellular phone has a function that places the mobile terminalapparatus in the message memo (answer phone) mode if a call is notanswered within a predetermined number of call rings. During thisresponse time, the input of the tone signal is accepted and, when thespecified tone signal sequence is received, the terminal can move tothis processing. Alternatively, after accepting a message memo, theterminal enters the automatic response mode to accept the input. In somecases, a malicious third party answers the call, in which case, theterminal cannot enter the automatic response mode. However, this thirddata upload processing is still useful when combined with other dataupload processing described above.

Referring to FIG. 7, when a mobile terminal apparatus automaticallyreceives a telephone call (Yes in S701), the mobile terminal apparatusenters the automatic response mode, in step S702, and performsauthentication processing, in step S703. The authentication processingis performed, for example, by receiving a password and checking if it iscorrect. If the authentication is not successful (No in S704), the lineis disconnected, in step S713) and the processing is ended.

If the authentication is successful (Yes in S704), the mobile terminalapparatus accepts the command, in step S705). If this command does notmatch the pre-registered command instructing to upload data (Yes inS706), the line is disconnected, in step S713, and the processing isended. Several retries may be attempted before the line is disconnected.Preferably, the command is a numeric string registered in advance by theterminal user.

If the commands match (Yes in S706), the line is disconnected, in stepS707, and the data upload processing is started. That is, the keyoperation is disabled, in step S708, and the specified data istransmitted to the server, in step S709. When the transmission is ended(Yes in S710), the specified data in the terminal is erased, in stepS711. After that, the disabled key operation is enabled, in step S712and the processing is ended.

It is possible that, after entering the automatic response mode andwhile the line is connected, an audio message created in advance may begenerated and sent to the calling party to notify him or her about theoperation guide and the operation result in response to the operationperformed by the calling party.

Although the line is once disconnected in step S707 for datacommunication, the line may be disconnected not in step S707 but afterthe processing is ended, if sound communication and data communicationcan be performed at the same time. In that case, an audio message,typically a voice message, may be sent indicating that upload processinghas completed. Alternatively, with a mail address (other that the oneallocated to the terminal) of the proper user registered in the terminalin advance, the notification message may be sent automatically to themail address when the upload processing is completed to notify the userabout the status.

FIG. 8 shows an example of configuration of a mobile terminal apparatuscapable of performing the third data upload processing in FIG. 7. Thisconfiguration is similar to the configuration shown in FIG. 2 exceptthat an automatic response unit 109 is added. The automatic responseunit 109 at least has a function to accept the tone signal describedabove and identify it and, preferably, an automatic voice responsefunction. The rest of the configuration is similar to that shown in FIG.2 and so will not be described in detail.

FIG. 9 shows data download processing that is performed to restore data,uploaded to the server as described above, to a terminal according to aninstruction from the user of the mobile terminal apparatus from whichthe data was uploaded. The data does not need to be downloaded to themobile terminal apparatus from which the data was uploaded nor does thedata need to be downloaded to a mobile terminal apparatus of the sametype. The user can also access the server from other terminals, such asa personal computer (PC).

It is supposed that a password for each user (user ID) is set in theserver 300 for use in authentication. The mobile terminal apparatus 100can browse the web page of the server via the base station/controlstation. The data of the specified web page is saved on the externalstorage device 302 of the server 300. When a mobile terminal apparatusaccesses the specified web page, in step S901, authentication processingis started, in step S902. During authentication processing, the username and the password are entered, for example, via the operation unit106 of the mobile terminal apparatus and the received information issent to the server 300 via the base station/control station. The serverauthenticates the user by comparing the received information with thepassword of each user stored in the server in advance. If the receiveduser name is not found or, if found, a password mismatch is found, theserver judges that an authentication error occurs (No in S903) and sendsa notification to the terminal indicating the error. In response to thisnotification, the terminal notifies the user about the error, in stepS904. Any notification method may be used; for example, a message isdisplayed on the display unit of the terminal, the LED is lit, a soundis generated, or a vibration is generated.

If the authentication is successful (Yes in S903), the user is requestedto select download items, in step S905. In this case, it is possible toallow the user to select the saving destination of each selection item.If data with the same name as that of a download item is already in theselected saving destination, the data with the same name is overwritten.It is also possible to omit the step of overwrite saving if it is found,as a result of comparison between the two, that the data to beoverwritten is identical to the data of a download item. Alternatively,instead of overwrite saving, synchronization may be established betweenthe two so that the old data is changed to the new data. Authenticationmay be performed, not in the position shown in the flowchart, but afterstep S905.

Then, the selected data is downloaded, in step S906. If the uploadeddata is fixed data (for example, address book, received mail folder,etc.) and no selection is necessary, step S905 may be omitted and S906turns simply into a step of downloading data.

The download is finished when “end notification” is received from theserver (Yes in S907). At this time, a message is displayed, for example,on the display unit to notify the user that the download is finished, instep S908, and then the processing is ended. The server may erase thedownloaded data. This erasure may be done either automatically or uponreceiving an instruction or agreement from the user.

Although the present invention has been described through preferredembodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the present inventionis not limited to such embodiment but that various changes,modifications, combinations and sub combinations are possible withoutdeparting from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

For example, although a password authentication is used in theauthentication method in step S502 in FIG. 5, the authentication methodis not limited to this. For example, fingerprint authentication ispossible on a terminal with the fingerprint authentication interface.For a proper user, a fingerprint authentication error is less likely tooccur; therefore, a single authentication error (with no retry), iffound, could be regarded that an unauthorized person attempted to accessdata.

When multiple authentication methods are available, the authenticationmethod may be changed according to data that is accessed. Alternatively,multiple authentication methods may be combined. In this case, one ofthe following actions may be taken: (a) if an error is found in one ofthe methods, control is passed to step S504; (b) when an authenticationerror occurs, the authentication method is changed to the one at ahigher authentication security level.

Although erased after being uploaded in the embodiment, data need notalways be erased. Alternatively, whether to erase may be predetermineddepending upon the type of data. In this case, the type of data to beerased may be either fixed or selected by the user. In either case, ifdata is not erased, it is preferable that data not be accessed at leastfor a given length of time (prevents authentication processing).Instead, it is also possible that multiple authentication methodsprepared in advance are used beginning with the lowest security levelmethod and, after an authentication error is found, a higher securitylevel method is used. Although data need not be uploaded if not erased,the data may also be uploaded to ensure the data in the terminal afterthe terminal is lost.

It is also possible that, with a security level assigned to all data,whether or not the data is specified data, what authentication method isused, and what processing (whether to erase, whether to upload) is to beperformed after an authentication error is found are set automaticallybased on the security level. The user may also specify them manually.

Although data itself is specified for uploading in the abovedescription, data to be uploaded may also specified at an applicationlevel. In this case, data to be uploaded is data related to theapplication.

Although whether the received password matches the registered passwordis used as the match condition for password authentication in the aboveembodiment, the question and answer authentication method is alsopossible. That is, whether the user responds with an answer that matchesthe answer prepared for the user in advance may be used as thecondition.

Although a specified web page is accessed using a user ID, the specifiedweb page (URL) may be provided for each user to eliminate the need forthe user to enter the user ID.

After step S904 in FIG. 9, it is also possible to prevent the userrelated data from being downloaded from the specified web page for agiven length of time. In addition, the server may send a mail to theuser corresponding to the user name indicating that the user has made anauthentication error when issuing a download request. Because anauthentication error is sometimes generated because a proper userforgets the password, the mail may include the password to notify theuser again about the password.

After selecting items in step S905, it is also possible to allow theuser to browse and edit the selected data. Data can be easily updated(for example, a new item can be added to the address book) by accessingthe selected data via some other apparatus, editing the data, anddownloading the data from the mobile terminal apparatus to establishsynchronization.

I claim:
 1. A mobile communication apparatus comprising: a communicationcircuit configured to perform wireless communication with anothercommunication apparatus; and circuitry configured to: check if apredetermined condition is satisfied; download data to the mobilecommunication apparatus when said predetermined condition is satisfied,wherein said downloaded data was previously uploaded; receive aninstruction message from outside of the mobile communication apparatus,disable at least one operation of the mobile communication apparatus inresponse to the received instruction message, and send a first messageindicating an operation corresponding to the received instructionmessage has been completed, wherein a second message is sent to a mailaddress associated with a proper user of the mobile communicationapparatus in advance.
 2. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 1,wherein the downloaded data was previously uploaded by the mobilecommunication apparatus in response to the received instruction message.3. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 2, wherein the downloadeddata was previously deleted from the mobile communication apparatusafter being uploaded by the mobile communication apparatus in responseto reception of the received instruction message.
 4. The mobilecommunication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the instruction message isan email message.
 5. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 1,wherein the instruction message is a telephonic message.
 6. The mobilecommunication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is furtherconfigured to, upon receiving the instruction message, check if a secondpredetermined condition is satisfied, and to only perform said disablingof the at least one operation of the mobile communication apparatus inresponse to the received instruction message if the second predeterminedcondition is satisfied.
 7. The mobile communication apparatus of claim6, wherein the instruction message is an email message and the secondpredetermined condition includes that information in the instructionmessage matches information registered in advance in the mobilecommunication apparatus.
 8. The mobile communication apparatus of claim7, wherein the information in the instruction message includes acharacter string in a header of the instruction message.
 9. The mobilecommunication apparatus of claim 7, wherein the information in theinstruction message includes an address of a sender of the instructionmessage.
 10. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 6, wherein theinstruction message is a telephonic message and the second predeterminedcondition is that information in the instruction message matchesinformation registered in advance in the mobile communication apparatus.11. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 10, wherein theinformation in the instruction message includes a tonal series.
 12. Themobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the predeterminedcondition includes a user of the mobile communication apparatusinstructing the mobile communication apparatus to browse to a webpageregistered in advance in the mobile communication apparatus.
 13. Themobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the downloaded datawas previously uploaded by another mobile communication apparatus. 14.The mobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the downloadeddata was previously uploaded by the mobile communication apparatus inresponse to a failed authentication attempt.
 15. The mobilecommunication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the downloaded data waspreviously uploaded by the mobile communication apparatus in response toa user attempting to access the data.
 16. The mobile communicationapparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one operation of the mobilecommunication apparatus that is disabled in response to the receivedinstruction message includes a user input operation.
 17. The mobilecommunication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operation correspondingto the received instruction message that the first message indicates hasbeen completed includes an uploading of predetermined data.
 18. Themobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the downloaded datawas previously uploaded by the mobile communication apparatus inresponse to the received instruction message, and the operationcorresponding to the received instruction message that the first messageindicates has been completed includes the uploading of the data.
 19. Themobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operationcorresponding to the received instruction message that the first messageindicates has been completed includes a deleting of predetermined data.20. The mobile communication apparatus of claim 1, wherein thedownloaded data was previously uploaded by the mobile communicationapparatus in response to the received instruction message andsubsequently deleted from the mobile communication apparatus, andwherein the operation corresponding to the received instruction messagethat the first message indicates has been completed includes thedeleting of the data.